Disclaimer: I don't own Princess Tutu. Well, I do own the DVDs but not the Anime. That is the property of studio Gansis and Ito Ikuko-sensei.
Vignette Seven: The Flower Maiden
Freya danced in her garden. With a watering can in hand she pirouetted between the rows of flowers sprinkling the crystalline drops as she went. Hoffnung passed her by massaging his throbbing cheek. He trod over one of the flowers, completely oblivious to it's fragile existence.
"Oh, no!" Exclaimed the blond ballerina. She rushed over to the crushed flower beneath the confused Hoffnung's foot. Freya knelt down beside the flattened flower and looked up at the one whom had crushed it with big shinning eyes. "How could you? To kill something so delicate and small..."
Hoffnung didn't hear her. He was mesmerized by the purity of her heart. To care so much about something so small and pointless as a plant... the purity of her heart would be enough to sustain him for well into the end of the week. He knelt down beside her and took her hand in his.
"I'm truly sorry." He began. "I was preoccupied by a personal problem and wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I meant to cause you no distress." He brought her hand up to his mouth and brushed his lips against it in a gentlemanly kiss.
A bright red blush spread over the whole of her face. He suppressed a smile and stood, and helped her to her feet in turn. "I'm Hoffnung." He introduced himself.
"Freya." She replied, still blushing.
"Freya." He repeated her name like a gentle caress. "You are by far the most beautiful flower here."
She blushed more profusely.
"Ah, she blushes." He teased her. "But it's true. You have such a beautiful Pure Heart, to care so much for the flowers as you do. Your boyfriend is a very lucky man."
"Oh, I don't have a boyfriend." She said a little to quickly.
"Really?" His evil smirk was mistaken for a humorous one. "Why is that? You are so beautiful and so sweet."
"I... well I..." Freya was at a loss for words.
"I could love you." His voice was flat, quiet, mesmerizing, hypnotizing. "Just say you love me. Love me and only me and hate everyone else."
"Hoffnung." Now it was her turn to say his name like a gentle caress. "I will love you and only and the flowers."
Hoffnung bit his lower lip in annoyance. No. She was suppose to love him and only him. No one else. Nothing else. Especially not flowers.
"Dance with me Freya!" He ordered.
"Yes..."
They began a slow pas de doux. Slow, seductive, sensual. That was how Hoffnung began their pas de doux. Steady. There was no reason to rush. He had eaten that morning and if he rushed the heart he could ruin the heart. He had to do things right. Right and carefully. It wouldn't do to have his mother interfering with his feeding because he was careless about his prey.
So observed was he in his prey that he failed to notice the grey cat that had wandered into the garden and was now mesmerized by Freya's swaying hair. The cat pounced on her, digging his claws into the small of her back.
"Ah! Ow!" She exclaimed.
"Stupid cat! Shoo!" He threw the crushed flower at it as it scampered away. But the damage was done. His spell had been broken. He wouldn't get her heart now. Not yet. He needed to see her again. In a different setting, away from the Academy, any cats, and any stupid flowers. "Are you alright, Freya?"
"Yes, I'm fine. I hope the cat is all right."
"Oh, he looked fine as he was running away. Will you see me again? Tonight? At the old bridge over the river through town."
"Uh, sure."
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Fakir sat in the classical German story telling class he'd recently enrolled in. All around him was the sound of quills scribbling furiously over paper as the students wrote furiously to keep up with the teacher's lecture. Fakir was writing furiously as well, but it was not notes he was taking. It was the tale of a Prince whom had become a King, the King whom had had a son and the son who was the Prince of the Ravens.
Fakir ground his teeth unconsciously as page after page of Mytho's life inside the story spilled on to the paper through his hand.
SPACE
The initial shock of seeing Hoffnung's nurse dead on the floor had faded quickly to be replaced by a cold sense of practicality. The body had to disappear. So had the bloody baby blankets in the crib. He watched Rue pluck their son out of the caged baby bed and wipe the blood from his face with the brand new silk dress he'd gotten her. That had to disappear to. No one could know the crown prince, his son, was a Raven!
He walked over to Rue and held her and Hoff-chan in his arms. She was trembling. He whispered that it would be alright. He would take care of everything. She had clutched Hoffnung to her breast and sobbed into his chest. He held them like that for some time until she was calm enough for him to send her to wash the blood from their son's mouth and hands properly. She blinked when he told her to take off the dress before she left, but she complied.
Mytho wrapped the nurse's lifeless body in the dress along with the baby blankets. He forgot what he had tied the bundle closed with but he did remember dragging it out to the stables and throwing it over the back of a horse he'd never used before. He'd ridden out of a servants' gate clad all in dark blue, the same inky blue as the sky. Black would have suited the job better, but he didn't own any black clothing. Not sense he had defeated the Rave.
He had ridden far, not resting, not changing directions, just ridding until the horse got tired. It had stopped by a river to drink, that was when Mytho finally dismounted. He pulled the dead weight off the horse and let it fall to the ground with a tump. He rubbed the late nurse's face in the sand of the river bank until there wasn't enough left to be able to identify her. The silk of Rue's dress was strong and very hard to tear, after some time of struggling with the stubborn material, he managed to get three long ribbons of it. He used these to tie the body to a rock and threw her in the river.
The remains of the dress and the bloody baby blankets he left at the opening to a cave in the woods that he assumed was a wolf's den. The wolves, smelling the blood, would come out and tear the fabrics to shreds for him, successfully destroying the remaining evidence that showed his son to be a Raven.
SPACE
"...and that just about covers it for today." The teacher had finished his lecture. "Any questions, comments or concerns, see me after class."
All around Fakir was the sound of chairs scrapping the floor as the waves of students rushed for the door and the freedom beyond. He remained seated and gawked at the pages in-front of him. Had he really just missed an entire class because he was so absorbed in his story?
"Are you alright, Mr.Fakir?" The teacher was standing over him now. He was the only student left in the room. "I've never seen you so studious before." He picked up the last page Fakir had been writing. "Ah, writing a story, I see. Well, that is what this class is here for, though I am a little sad that you weren't paying attention." He read over a few lines. "Seems dark. It almost reminds me of the late Herr Drosslemyer's works." That statement cut Fakir like a knife. "Are you a fan of his?"
"No." Flatly. Defiantly. Almost passionately. No.
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"See, Rue-chan? Cleaning's not that bad." Ahiru gave her friend a ditzy smile as she swung the filthy grey dust rag she was using over her shoulder. "I used to do this loads of times before."
Rue rinsed the mop she'd been given in a bucket of cloudy water. "I don't see how you can stand to do this all the time." She wrong the mop out and began again to scrub a new area of the floor.
"Nah, this is fun!" Another smile. "It gives me time to think. I think about what I have to do as Princess Tutu, about the heart shards, the Raven, the story and Drosslemyer-san. Oh, I also used to wonder why Fakir was such a jerk, but not now. Now I think about what he might be writing. I hope it good." She laughed a goofy little laugh.
Rue smiled. "Ahiru, you'd make a great house wife."
Ahiru blushed. "What really!?" She suddenly went chibi. "You really think so, Rue-chan? I never thought of it before! I don't think so. I'm to klutzy! Besides, who would I marry?"
"How about Fakir?"
She tripped on Rue's wet floor.
"Ahiru! Are you okay?" She knelt down beside her friend.
"I'm okay, Rue-chan. See how klutzy I am? I'd make a terrible wife." Ahiru climbed to her feet.
"But you and Fakir complement each other so well."
Again, she fell. "Heh, heh. You know, Rue-chan, we should really finish this floor. It's really slippery."
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Later that evening the two were returning to their new rooms in the dorms when another girl brushed passed them going the opposite direction.
"Ah, Freya-san!" Ahiru exclaimed joyfully.
Freya didn't reply, she merely kept on walking with a dreamy far off look in her eyes.
"Freya-san?" Repeated a confused Ahiru.
The blond ballerina kept walking, completely oblivious to the pinkish-orange haired girl addressing her. She exited through the massive rot iron gates of the dormitories and turned to walk along the bank of the town's river.
"Ahiru." Rue sounded serious for some reason. "Let's follow her."
"Oh, okay."
The two followed her along the bank to an old stone bridge. A very familiar old bridge. Freya had led them to the old Prodding Bridge the Bridge of Riddles. Of course it was no longer possessed by Mytho's shard of curiosity, but it made them both feel nostalgic all the same.
There was someone standing in the center of the bridge. With a twisted silver crown upon his head,clad in a black tunic with dark feathers running the length of the collar and hem and dark burgundy tights to match. Freya stopped at the edge of the bridge and stared at him.
"Freya..." began the dark figure.
"That's Hoffnung!" Exclaimed Rue. Ahiru gasped.
"...say you love me and only me and hate everyone else." He crossed his hands at the wrist over his stomach then spread his arms to there full span. Enormous black wings appeared where his arms were and crow costumed minions materialized out of the darkness of the night. "Give me your beautiful Pure Heart!"
Ahiru's eyes narrowed in an expression of determinism. Her pendant glowed a brilliant ruby red and she was swiped up in a whirl of shojou sparkles that spiraled around her body to form a golden egg. The egg dissolved into sparkling water droplets and there standing amidst the shinning sparkles was not Ahiru but Princess Tutu!
"Freya-san." Said Tutu. "Don't go over there, Freya-san." She twirled her hands above her head and turned her hand palm upward to Freya. "Won't you come and dance with me, Freya-san?"
"No. I will not!" The hypnotized Freya replied. She turned toward Hoffnung.
"Yes, Freya." He cooed. "Love me. Hate everyone but me."
The crow costumed minions lifted Freya high into the air and brought her to Hoffnung.
"You mustn't, Freya-san." Tutu began to dance. A slow gentle dance reminiscent of a soft breeze through a flowery field. "Remember the flowers, Freya-san. Remember your prayer to them, that they would grow pretty, grow strong. Who will take care of them if you give your heart away?"
Freya opened her eyes ever so slightly. "The... flowers..."
Hoffnung bit his lower lip in annoyance. He flicked his wrist and one of the minions pirouetted over to strike Tutu in the back. The pink Princess when spiraling to the ground. Rue rushed to her side.
"Ahiru, are you alright?" She raised her head to shout at Hoffnung. "Please, Hoff-chan, don't do this!"
Hoffnung ignored her. His minions were now holding Freya directly in-front of him. "Now Freya." He said. "Give me your beautiful Pure Heart!"
"Yes." she closed her eyes.
Hoffnung plunged his hand deep into her chest, fingers ripping through flesh and slipping in between ribs to pull out a shining pink gemstone, the same soft pink as a Queen Elizabeth Rose. He healed the glowing stone aloft in triumph before popping it in his mouth and swallowing the thing whole.
"FREYA-SAN!" Tutu cried.
Freya's limp body was lowered to the ground by the minions whom then vanished in puffs of purple sparkles.
"Hoff-chan, how could you?" Rue had tears in her eyes.
Hoffnung didn't say anything to his distraught mother. He simply averted his eyes and vanished in a swirling mist of wind and black Raven feathers.
Ahiru was sure that if Drosslemyer was still controlling the story she'd be hearing his voice right now saying, "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! The Flower Maiden is no more! The Prince has stolen her heart! What will you do, Princess Tutu? What will you do?"
Fin for now...